Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has urged Asia to strengthen its borders to stop asylum seekers on boats. Photo: James Alcock

"You cannot stop the boats, unless you are prepared to actually stop boats," he told the audience at the Putrajaya Forum in Kuala Lumper.

"Co-operation on tighter border control arrangements in regional ports of entry and more restrictive visa conditions in both Malaysia and Indonesia have also assisted deter the arrival of potential illegal immigrants to Australia into the region," he said.

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But the Greens have criticised the speech, saying Mr Morrison is "preaching cruelty to Asia".

“Touring the region and advocating for crueller treatment of refugees is no way for Australia to behave,” the Greens’ immigration spokeswoman, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“Gone are the days when Scott Morrison was ‘shocked by the treatment that people receive in Malaysia.’ Now he wants them to get tougher."

In 2012, the Labor government maintained that the Malaysia solution, which would take 800 asylum seekers in exchange for resettling 4000 refugees in Australia, would deter asylum seekers. At the time then opposition leader Tony Abbott opposed the idea on the grounds that asylum seekers could be subject to mistreatment in Malaysia.

He has also given his strongest indication that the government is close to sealing a deal with Cambodia to resettle refugees from Nauru. Speaking to the ABC last week, Mr Morrison said that no one on Nauru would be permanently settled, raising the possibility that at least 1000 asylum seekers who are found to be refugees could be resettled in one of Asia's poorest countries.

"In Nauru, for example, the agreement was never there for permanent resettlement in Nauru, but there will be a lengthy period of temporary settlement," he said.